Atwater in the Park is finally open. The newest edition to the Grosse Pointe combines Detroit beer, German food and an 80 year old church. I love the atmosphere of this place inside and out. The seating outside is a bier garten style, meaning it’s mostly picnic style tables and you squeeze in where ever you can fit. Inside has about the same amount as sitting as the outside but also includes a huge U shaped bar. All the brewing equipment is up where eth alter use to be. It is kind of weird seeing the Jesus on the stained glass window blessing the brew equipment, but I also like it. The pews from the old church where repurposed into the seating. All the food is German based for example Wurst plates, schnitzel, and German Pizza. I can’t wait to visit again to try everything.

For our first visit we just sat at the bar and shared an order of pretzels and a flight of beer. I will be going back and providing more reviews of the food, because so much of it looks amazing. My wife and I found the pretzels to be a great deal. At only $4 you got 6 pretzels at varying sizes. To be specific, 2 large, 2 medium and 2 small soft pretzels. They also come with 2 great sauces. The first was a honey mustard that I enjoyed. It was sweet and a little spicy. It was pretty liquidity but I still liked the overall flavor. The second sauce is a beer cheese fondue. This was cheesy and hearty filled with onions and some other veggies it may have just been there beer cheese soup, but im not complaining. The Large and medium pretzels were better than the small in my opinion as I think the small got a little over cooked. I still ate them. These were great with our beers and you can’t beat the price.

Now for the beers. You can get the classic Atwater beers as well as some exclusives to Atwater in the Park. We went with a mixture. The Dirty Blonde is a classic and should be tried by all beer lovers. The Summertime was new to me and I liked it. It has a little bit of citrus flavor perfect for the summer. Think Oberon. The triple and Cottonwood were both exclusives. The Triple was high alcohol content but was not over powering. I’ll have more on the beers as well as we visit the bier garten throughout the summer. Thanks for reading. GO TO ATWATER!

On my recent trip down to Lakeland Florida I was told I had to stop at Burger 21. This is a chain but is mainly just in Florida. They have everything a burger place should have including fries, sliders, milkshakes, hot dogs, a kids menu, salad (for the healthy people) and the best part Beer. The burgers include beef, chicken, seafood and veggie. This is one of those places were you order at a counter and they deliver your food to your table. To start I just ordered the Bacon sliders, split some fries and a Florida IPA (I’ll put this in the Beer blog soon).

The Bacon Sliders and fries arrived fairly quickly and all the staff was very nice and helpful. We got some Bloomin’ Onion type sauce to dip the fries in but they have a wide variety that you can choose yourself. The Fries were crispy and skinny, with just enough salt. I really enjoyed them with and without the sauce. The fires were good but the sliders were even better. They were cooked perfectly. A nice medium and still remained juicy. Big strips of bacon topped each slider. The bacon had a good smoky flavor that I love. I also got my burgers loaded with lettuce, tomato, ketchup and mustard. All of these were included in perfect amounts which made the sliders easy to eat. All the sliders bun are attached to each other, but it is easily ripped apart as the buns are soft and warm, with just a little bit of toasting on the inside. This is just enough to keep the bun from getting soggy. Needless to say I was very happy and full with just the sliders and fries. However, that would not be the end of my meal today.

By pure coincidence my cousin Jungle Jim happen to be stopping by his favorite Burger Place in Lakeland. Burger 21. Since we were done eating our dinner already he gave us a suggestion that I truly appreciated. He told us we must get the cookies for dessert. So with little hesitation we did. These cookies are amazing. You will have to like toffee as all of their cookies include a little toffee, but this made them even better in my mind. They had 3 flavors. White Chocolate Macadamia Nut, Chocolate Chip, and Reverse Chocolate Chip. All of these had just enough chewiness in the center with the slight crunch on the edges. I am usually partial to a reverse chocolate chip cookie but the white chocolate won, by slimmest of margins. However, you really can’t go wrong with any of them. Overall, I really enjoyed Burger 21. Great sliders, fries and cookies. Also, helpful employees. Thanks for reading!

Back to Lunchtime Global!Lunchtime Global is located in the First National Building in downtown Detroit. They have a wide selection of soups that changes every day. Since I love soup and trying new foods, I go hear quite often. This soup was my big foot for the last year. I had a taste of it but I only remembered it was called “lady” something. I would check the menu but never saw Lady again, until last week. I still do not know what is in this soup. I guess I should ask next time they have it, however it really doesn’t matter because it is delicious. It has a creamy, buttery broth that is just out of this world. It has all the basics of a soup, onion, carrots and celery. The soup also includes big hunks of chicken that make it a little heartier. I believe there is also a little rice in it, but I will be completely honest in saying I am not sure. There is just something about the broth that I love and know you will love to so give it a try!Thank you for reading.

This was a long time coming. I have heard from many people that Mudgie’s has the best sandwiches around. Well they did not disappoint. After trying to eat at Mudgie’s a few times and either having them closed or having it be to long of a wait we finally got in on a Saturday afternoon after some prep work on the new Northern location for Pale Horse Brewery. This place is tiny so be prepared to wait for a table or just get carry out. It is located in a converted house in Corktown. We did have great service, which is awesome to see from the hipster community (Hipsters and Dan Gilbert saving Detroit). We sat at two, two top tables next to each other, but we were in different server sections. However, we still got our food at almost the same time. It takes a little while to get your sandwich here, but everything is made to order and is well worth the wait. There are so many unique combinations on the menu and the soups are always something you won’t get anywhere else. I found it very hard to choose which sandwich to get. After a long thought process I finally chose the “That’s Jared” and the Curried Apple Soup.

With my mind finally made up, it was only a short wait for the soup. The curried apple soup is served cold. Usually I am not a fan of cold soup. However, on this hot summer day and after working on the brewery all morning this was rather refreshing. The curry was very prevalent. There was also a hint of cilantro and of course apples. The best way to describe it is a watered down apple sauce with curry and cilantro spices. It tasted better than that sounds. While that was a good starter it’s all about the sammiches.

After a short wait the sandwich came. The “that’s Jared” has house-made corned beef, with Swiss cheese and topped with a scoop of house-made redskin potato salad. All of this is on a Kaiser Roll. It is served warm with a side of spicy mustard. The corned beef was delicious. It was similar to a pulled pork texture without any sauce, chucks of juicy goodness. There was just enough melted Swiss cheese. The potato salad added a crispness and a tad of vinegar, but not too much. The roll was one of my favorite parts. Slightly toasted, but still soft and covered in poppy seeds. It really all came together perfectly. It really didn’t even need the mustard but was a nice change of pace to add to a few bits. Soup good, unique. Sandwich awesome, I’d get it again, but there are so many other ones to try. Thanks for reading.http://www.mudgiesdeli.com/

Mercury Bar is located across the street from Slow's on Michigan Ave in Detroit. The building decor is a little like an old diner. They have a large back patio that is great for a nice summer day. Now when it comes to service and food Mercury Bar can be hit or miss. It is located in hipster central, so you get hipster service, which equals slow in most cases. Just be prepared to wait and enjoy the atmosphere. On this trip I tried the regular poutine and the Fried Green BLT.

The poutine was just alright, not one of my favorites. The fries where over done for my liking, all being very brown which I could still tell even through the gravy. The gravy was also not the best. It was very dark which I don't mind, but just lacked flavor. It needed more salt at the very least. The cheese curds were good just wish there was more of them. For the main course I got the Fried Green BLT

The Fried Green BLT was great. I highly recommend this for BLT or sandwich lovers. There was lots of apple wood smoked bacon on the sandwich. It also had just enough mayo and lettuce. The fried green tomato really added extra crunch and flavor that takes a normal BLT to the next level. I really enjoyed this. Overall good place to try in Detroit. I have heard the burgers and the tater tot poutines are pretty good. I would definitely get the Fried Green BLT again. Thanks for Reading.

foods i had to try

This page is for all the other foods I have tried. This includes at restaurants or made by other people. I’ll let you know if I love or hate each dish. I’ll probably like most of them.

Munchies 420

Author

I grew up in the Detroit Suburbs and have always loved food
and cooking. I think it stems from my Grandparents
taking me on trips around the world and making me try new things. Now I live by the motto, “try everything
once, you may just like it.” I am by no means a chef or a writer. Just a guy who likes food and getting people
to try new things.